Accra, June 4, GNA – Vodafone Ghana Foundation, the charity arm of Vodafone Ghana, on Friday provided free health screening services for residents of Dawhwenya in the Ningo Prampram District of the Greater Accra Region.
The exercise, under the Foundation’s HealthFest Programme, forms part of its efforts to bring healthcare delivery to the doorstep of the people.
The programme screened about 500 community members for Hepatitis B, Tuberculosis, Malaria, HIV, Typhoid, Syphilis, Blood Sugar and Pressure, and COVID-19.
Pregnant women were offered a free pregnancy scan to check the growth of their babies, while men had the opportunity to check their prostate and kidneys.
Reverend Nana Amaris Perbi, the Head of Vodafone Ghana Foundation, said the Foundation will ensure that all persons who were found to have some medical conditions after the screening received treatment free of charge.
He said as part of the Healthfest, the Foundation was also enrolling community members onto the National Health Insurance Scheme and that those whose NHIS cards were missing or expired would have them replaced or renewed.
He assured the community members of free and quality healthcare by well-trained medical doctors, nurses and pharmacists.
Nana Perbi said Vodafone Ghana Foundation hoped to provide free healthcare in all communities across the country and keep supporting patients who were unable to pay their bills at the hospital under its “Home coming Programme”.
“As part of our home coming programme, we paid hospital bills for 300 patients who could not afford their bills after treatment in the hospital and we will repeat this gesture from July this year,” he said.
Mr Edmund Duodu Atweri, the Founder of the Divine Mother and Child Foundation, implementers of Vodafone Ghana Foundations Healthfest, said the screening was targeted at providing health services not available at the CHIPS zones in rural communities.
The Healthfest is to promote Primary Healthcare and Universal Health Coverage, ensuring that no one is left behind.
Mrs Vivia Dwira, the Deputy Director of Nursing Services at the Ningo Prampram District, said she was impressed at the level of patronage of the screening.
He said the exercise started with a health education on communicable and non-communicable diseases and the need for all to observe personal hygiene.
She advocated the expansion of all 10 CHIP compounds in the District with enough health personnel to attend to people from the community, which was expanding into a peri-urban area due to development.
Mrs Dwira called for the establishment of a district hospital in the area as patients had to travel for long distances to access healthcare when referred.
GNA